My Bariatric Life's Two-Stage Breast Lift and Implants. Lift first, implants 1-yr later - Dr. Joseph F. Capella, Ramsey, NJ

I am under-going a total body transformation after massive weight loss with the leading plastic surgeon in this category, Dr. Joseph F. Capella. You may follow my experience and see my photos here.

They look pretty good in my sports bra, but still not sure if I like them nude. I can see that they are improving over time so I will try to wait patiently.

Here are my D/DD breasts before the lift. Now I am a B and trying to decide how large I want to go with implants.

I am surprised how much projection I have with the push up bra. I remain disappointed with the way that my breasts look when nude, although I have seen them change for the better across the past 6-weeks. Dr. Capella already told me that he would revise me so I am not concerned. Sometimes is takes a second chance to go back and fine tune things on a MWL patient.

Dr. Capella created perfectly round areolas and nice clean straight incision lines on my breasts. I have seen lots of plastic surgeons fail at this. So I really appreciate his attention to detail and expertise here. He also made my areolas smaller. I don't understand why more women don't reduce the size of their stretched out areolas.

I love what this woman was able to achieve with 200cc implants to create upper pole fullness and a more shapely breast http://www.realself.com/review/melbourne-au-23yr-breast-lift-200cc-implants I think that I am going to do something more like that versus going back to my pre op DDs.

Thoughts anyone?

In Venezuela, women are confronted with a culture of increasingly enhanced breasts fueled by beauty pageants and plastic surgery.

So I spoke to my surgeon about the breasts of RealSelf member, Baracci http://www.realself.com/review/melbourne-au-23yr-breast-lift-200cc-implants. He told me that she and I do not have the same problems with our breasts. I had posted about her on Nov 17 and how much I liked her small implants.

My breasts are oddly shaped. Dr. Capella said they are sort of tuberous. Massive weight and massive weight loss does a lot of damage to our bodies. It is quite sad. For example, the nipple should be 21cm from the sternum and mine is 25cm AFTER my lift. My surgeon said that 21cm is not realistic for a MWL breast (I am paraphrasing him). And they are not round like a normal breast. I read this is owing to the crease being semi linear, which is common in MWL women.

There are some expensive treatments that some surgeons use to correct the breast (e.g. Strattice). I spoke with Dr. Capella about this because I do not want a larger version of my oddly shaped breasts with the implants.

Right now I just feel so sad about all the damage I have done to my body by being morbidly obese for so long.

I have posted a pic of my breast lift. From the profile view they look quite nice but head-on when I am nude you would be able to see the shape of my breasts and understand what I mean about them not being round. I am sure that they do not look as bad as I make them out to be. Dr. Capella told me that he will be able to make some corrections when he does my implants so as to make my breasts round. I just want them to look really pretty when I am nude.

I guess that my breasts loosened up or something changed because they are larger now than they were right after surgery. The look quite nice, nicer than they did post op. I still will discuss moving the nipple areola higher with my surgeon but that is really fine tuning things.

Here is a pic showing that my boobs have gotten larger -- and BTW so has my ass. I was lean after surgery and now I am curvy. I am happy either way.

Ok, I finally posted a full view of my breast lift that Dr. Capella created. Enjoy!

The small opening is where my body spit a stitch. It healed over rapidly.

I've been having the great boob debate in regard to my implants. Pre breast lift I was a 38 DD. They looked pretty good, not deflated and droopy as is often normal for a MWL woman. But Dr. Capella said if I wanted implants then he would have to do a two stage lift and implant. So, I had the lift last October and will get implants later this year.

Immediately after the lift I went to about a B cup. But over time I went to at least a C, maybe a D. Across the months I have been wondering if I want to go back to my Double D. Well, by the looks of things, I may now be a Double D at the base of my breasts. In this photo I am wearing one of my 38 DD Victoria Secret bras. The thing is, I do not fill the upper part of the bra like I did pre operatively. So I will need a small implant to create upper pole fullness.

Prior to my lift I was a 38 DD. Now 3-mos post breast Lift, I just bought my first bra and it is a 36 D. It fits perfectly. I wish that the cleavage and upper pole fullness remained once I remove the bra. Then I would not need implants! Maybe I will post a pic of the matching bra and thong tomorrow. They are super sweet.

I am a few days late posting the pix to go with the above post.

It is interesting to see how my breasts have changed over time with the lift. Not only have they gotten larger but also the shape has changed. If you have been following my journey, you know then that immediately after surgery I hated my breast lift. In fact I went to Dr. Capella's office crying about my breasts and ass. Yeah, it was one of those emotional days early after surgery.

Initially, I was disappointed because my breasts did not look the way that I expected as far as the location and size of the nipple areaola complex. I wish Dr. Capella had prepared me for what to expect as I would have expressed my desire for aesthetic outcome. Dr. Capella told me that the approach he uses preserves a lot of projection and that most women like it. I know that he really liked the way that my breasts came out, and took a lot of care in creating them, so I felt bad telling him of my disappointment. Dr. Capella, being the wonderful plastic surgeon that he is, immediately offered to modify the size and location of the areaola nipple complex once my tissues were healed. But he did caution me not to go too small with my areaola. He said that he made them as small as is natural for a woman. I never knew there were standards of measurement for the body.

I also had expected that Dr. Capella would change the shape of my breast with the lift and put them higher on my chest. As you can see in the photos they are a little tuberous rather than round, and sit rather low on my chest, compared to what is natural for a woman. Dr. Capella explained to me that he cannot move them higher on my chest, that they have to stay where the mammary fold is, and he said that he could change the shape of my breasts by opening up the pocket when he does the implant.

That all sounded like a good plan at the time. But now that my breasts have gotten bigger, the things that I want to achieve with the implant are upper pole fullness and roundness. But I do not want to go larger than I already am, which is a D cup. So when I ask Dr. Capella to move my nipples, I will ask his advice on this. My guess is that he can further reduce the breast size and then add the implant... but I do not know this for sure and I do not know if it would be done in one stage or two.

I am actually wondering if he revised the lift, if Dr. Capella could get my breasts high enough to create upper pole fullness without the implant. If so, I might choose to forgo the implant. Decisions, decisions... I will not have a clear direction until I speak with Dr. Capella.

Anyway, this is all fine tuning things, as in the end, my breast lift did turn out beautifully.

I met with Dr. Capella last week to discuss my implants and lifting my breasts higher. Currently, I am in a 36 DD and my breasts look spectacular in my bra. But I want them to look spectacular in the nude.

We are doing saline moderate profile round implants. I forget what cc Dr. Capella suggested but he said it would bring me to a D cup. He will open up the pocket to round out my breasts and lift my NAC further once the implants are placed. Surgery is scheduled for May 29th.

You may follow my breast augmentation journey here http://www.realself.com/review/ramsey-nj-stage-breast-augmentation-dr-joseph-capella-ramsey-nj-super-excited

It definitely took some time to see the ultimate results of my breast lift. I am now wearing a 36 DD from Victoria Secret at 5-mos post op. The tissues settled and I guess there was fat redistribution to my breasts to bring me from a B to a DD cup, even though I lost weight. The shaped changed, too, and my breasts do not pull outwardly like they did in the earlier photo.

This Summer, I am in bikini tops and bottoms after a total body lift last Fall with Dr. Joseph F. Capella. I have not worn these since my early 20s!

I am despondent. Comments from surgeons have come back to me about my breast lift from this site. The plastic surgeons said I needed my breast lift redone (http://www.realself.com/question/36dd-32-38-158-pounds-after-massive-weight-loss-57-tall-50yo-create-big). Here are a few of the comments that were particularly painful:
"Appears to be a very, very, conservative lift."
"You need a GOOD breast lift."

Worse, comments have come back from plastic surgeons in the community, and these are the comments that have driven me to tears. I was speechless when I heard the following:
"Her breasts looked better before the lift."
"If I did not see the scars I never would have known she'd had a lift."
Other comments were too crude for me to reprint.

I spoke with my surgeon and he said he thinks they look fine and that he doesn't know how much more he can raise the NAC. And although I have had a long relationship with him, the other plastic surgeons' comments were very compelling. I have never liked my breast lift and so many patients told me it was a beautiful breast lift that I began to mistrust my own observation. But these surgeons are confirming what I have always felt, that this was a failed breast lift. I just don't know who to believe anymore.

I've posted my photos and welcome all opinions and advice.

It has come to my attention that my post above needs clarification. Dr. Capella offered a very long time ago (I think I was 2 weeks out of surgery) to revise my breast lift when the time was right because I told him that I did not like them. So to be clear, he is revising my breast lift at no charge even though he thinks they look fine. He also is doing other revisions on me at no charge (some skin removal). I have to pay the hospital fees only. I respect that very much. I have seen many patients on RealSelf who cried that their surgeons would not revise them.

It guess the bottom line is that the surgeons' comments came very unexpectedly. I was speechless and brought to tears. I have been through so much drama with my body contouring and I have a very low tolerance for any more.

It doesn't matter whether my surgeon thinks my lift looks fine and other surgeons think it looks bad. What is important is that the revision and augmentation be executed with a technique that will be successful. To that end, I have asked Dr Capella to stage them because right now every fiber in my body tells me not to do them together.

I posed a question here to the plastic surgeons asking whether my breast lift was awful as a few surgeons said. I am relieved that they are posting that I had a good result! As well, a surgeon on ObesityHelp said I had a good result. Boy, I was really scared there for a while.

Last Friday, Dr. Capella and I spoke on the phone and I told him of my concerns that these surgeons had expressed. He was very nice and gentle and I am grateful that I have the kind of patient-physician relationship with him in which such difficult conversations are able to be had. He is indeed a gentleman and a gentle man.

Here are the surgeons comments if you care to read them: http://www.realself.com/question/2-stage-lift-and-implant-post-mwl-my-lift-failure-good-implants-and-else-in

My Bariatric Life "before" and "after" plastic surgery - yes, this really is me!

Having gone through my transformation, I think that I now know how people feel having hit the lottery after decades of living in poverty. My results from facial rejuvenation with Dr. Catherine Winslow and body contouring plastic surgery with Dr. Joseph F. Capella are so good, that it is sometimes surreal. After a decade of not having achieved the body and face I wanted to achieve from weight loss surgery, there are times when I feel as if this is just a wonderful dream. And I might awaken from this wonderful dream, lying in my bed in my former puddle of flesh, and not caring much about how I looked.

Just a little more than a year ago, the "before" photos above were taken at Easter. Yes, it is hard to believe that the person in both images is one and the same. The "after" photo was taken this past March, just 3-mos after my facial plastics with Dr. Winslow and 5-mos after my stage 2 body contouring with Dr. Capella.

I now have the body that weight loss surgery could not give me. It has been decades since I looked this good. As of this writing, I have lost 50-inches and 40-pounds. I went from a size 14 jeans being tight to size 2 jeans in less than a year since my tummy tuck (my first plastic surgery). Never did I imagine that a simple tummy tuck would lead to this. Joseph F. Capella MD did an outstanding job!

Catherine Winslow MD must have taken 15-years off my face! She gave me a mature version of the pretty face I had in high school. I am going to my high school class reunion this year and I will be very proud to show everyone that I look nearly the same as I did the last time they saw me (32 years ago).

If it can happen to me, then it can happen to you. And it's a whole lot more possible than your chances of winning the lottery! It really can and does happen. Just checkout the ~thousand photos on Dr. Capella's website. As for Dr. Winslow, if you think her website gallery is impressive, just wait until you see the before and after photos in her practice.

I hit the lottery alright!

I am creating a photo gallery on Flickr of my before and after photos --
Before I became obese
After I became obese but before weight loss surgery
After weight loss surgery but before plastic surgery
After plastic surgery

It is a work in progress but lots of photos are up at this point. My wish is to inspire people to defeat obesity and live a life they love! I've attached a few photos from My Bariatric Life on Flickr and you may view my other reviews on RealSelf to see others.

You have within you what it takes to succeed!

Dr. Capella's PA Scott who has been with me for all of my surgeries now refuses to assist in my last surgery - a 4-hr breast augmentation and revisions to complete my two-stage lift and implant and tweak my other work. I am appalled and deeply hurt.

Scott became very offended by my inquiry about his credentials on a recent phone call. He spoke to me in an emotional and unprofessional manner. And although I tried to calm him down, Scott remained angry. What is worse, Scott now refuses to assist Dr. Capella in my breast augmentation and revision surgery, putting both my safety and my results at risk.

I even went so far as to attempt to reconcile with Scott face to face when I was in NJ, using Dr. Capella as a conduit, but Scott did not respond to me. This speaks volumes to Scott's integrity and patient care and safety.

Now a senior plastic surgery resident who I do not know and whom has never worked with Dr. Capella will assist in my surgery. I guess I shall try to rest easy in the fact that I am getting a doctor this time around. Scott's behavior is egregious.